Regina woman marks 20 years of wrapping for Santas Anonymous

Each year when the Regina Food Bank is transformed into a Christmas workshop for CJME Santas Anonymous Wrap Day, you will find one of Santa’s busiest helpers at her post without fail.

Roxanne Brown has kept up the tradition of volunteering at Wrap Day for 20 years.

“It’s important that every kid gets something under the tree, it doesn’t have to be the best like other kids but it has to be something and it has to be special,” she explained on the Greg Morgan Morning Show Wednesday.

Brown said she started coming to wrap day when her son was young. When he grew up, she brought along her niece and nephew starting when they were five.

Now they are teenagers and have been at Wrap Day almost as long as she has.

Every team of wrappers picks up a paper with a list of names and ages of kids on it, then they get the fun of “shopping” through bins of donated toys to pick out something to wrap.

As a veteran of the event, Brown has become known as the professional wrapper and she adds extra personal touches to each gift she wraps.

“In our own home and family with Christmas gifts we always put extra goodies on top of the packages – not just a bow. So with these guys we decided early on that we would give them a set of one-size fits all mitts and in the mitts comes a little container of bubbles, a pen, a pencil, an eraser and a candycane of course,” Brown said.

Brown estimates she has wrapped somewhere between 40 to 60 gifts every year for two decades.

She encourages everyone to come out and join in on the fun Saturday morning starting at 8 a.m. at the Regina Food Bank on Winnipeg Street.